Several background developments in the prior art literature from which the present invention is distinguishable are described below:
1. D. H. Woodard in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, page 1592, Vol. 9, No. 11, Apr. 1976, describes technology for non-impact printing by laser light through evaporation selectively of coated material layer from a light absorbing layer on a substrate. They together comprise a web upon which the laser light impinges. The coated material first evaporates and then condenses on an adjacent copy paper which can be developed with toner particles or some other developing technique.
2. W. T. Levine in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 15, No. 2, July 1972, page 367, describes a printer technology in which a nylon fabric tape in an endless loop is impregnated with a chemical which is electrochemically color reversible. Writing and referencing electrodes accomplish dot matrix information printing.
3. D. D. Roshon, Jr. et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,662 issued Dec. 20, 1966 describes selective piercing of a paper sheet material by laser beam by volatilizing, burning or destroying for storage of an information pattern of holes at specified locations. Ink spots are established at the specified locations on the sheet material on the surface which is disposed opposite to the surface upon which the laser beam impinges.
4. H. Angel in U.S. Pat. No. 2,350,382 issued June 6, 1944 describes passing of a perforated tape through a liquid bath of some plasticlike or waxlike material for filling the perforations therewith. Selected ones of the filled holes are punched out or otherwise removed in accordance with a pattern of signals to be stored as holes in the tape.
5. D. L. Roberts in U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,210 issued Jan. 22, 1974, describes recording of an image as record of machine or human readable characters on a film with a laser beam by removing a coating on a substrate by blow-off or explosion at selected locations through focusing the laser beam to the interface from the substrate side.
6. R. J. Wise in U.S. Pat. No. 2,384,515 issued Sept. 11, 1945 describes apparatus for recording the information content of electrical signals on a moving endless web belt. A reticulated or perforated web is provided which has small closely spaced interstices capable of sustaining a film of a liquid thereacross which is picked up at a bath of liquid in a receptacle. The recording web-belt is in the form of a fine mesh-screen made of woven wire, or of pierced metal or of cloth. The liquid is selectively removed from the interstices in elemental areas of the medium. The film forming liquid may be colored in order that distinctive pattern may be formed on the medium by the selective removal of the liquid thereform. This removal may be effected mechanically, as by an air blast, or electrically, as by a suitable electrically charged stylus moving relative to the surface.
The record information may be projected upon a screen as a visible image by means of any suitable projector.